Tuesday, 30 July 2013

MY FAVOURITE MOVIES - BATMAN & ROBIN {YES, REALLY!}

Now I know what you're thinking and no, the men in white coats have not been informed just yet, I say yet. Whilst this film has been dubbed one of the worst films ever made {and in all honesty it is], allow me to give you my honest review, and also express why I love this zany, farcical, campy superhero film of my favourite superhero, Batman.

Now I am a huge Batman fan, having seen all the films and a fan of the video games too I have seen the good {The Dark Knight}, the bad {Batman Returns} and the ugly {Batman & Robin}. I even enjoyed the very campy 60s Batman series with Adam West playing the caped crusader. This film is directed by Joel Schumacher and he took over from Tim Burton whose last Batman film was Batman Returns, a film I didn't enjoy at all as I felt as good as Danny DeVito was as The Penguin, it didn't have the "fun" factor and was disappointing to me. However, Schumacher's first film in this series was Batman Forever, a much more kid friendly film and I thoroughly enjoyed it especially the performances by Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones {The Riddler & Two Face/Harvey Dent}and whilst this film is very campy and filled with one-liners, I enjoyed it a lot and consider it one of my favourite Batman films.

I will be very fair in my review and point out the bad points of the film, and by that I mean in a general film making sense. This film was considered a huge flop in a box office sense. I always found the decision to name George Clooney as Batman to be terrible. I feel he is not a "believable" Batman and true to form he proved a huge disappointment and seemed to look like he didn't want to be in the film at all, and to be honest who could blame him! Chris O'Donnell returns as Robin and within the first minutes of the film, the one-liners are on show with Robin telling Batman "I want a car!...chicks dig the car!". To which Batman responds with the gem that is "this is why superman works alone!.." O...K then.

There is less of Alfred in this film and the actor playing him {Michael Gough} must be physic as he must have known how bad this film was going to be so decided to agree to his small role! This film is FULL and I mean FULL of one-liners that to many will drive them insane, but to many others {including myself}, prove to be the best part of this entire film! The director and writers of the film have clearly no idea how to write a decent plot as very little in this film makes any sense. Now are Clooney and O'Donnell the worst actors in the film, nope and not even by a LONG shot, enter Mr Freeze and Poison Ivy {played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Uma Thurman}. Wow, just wow. Freeze and Poison Ivy's plan to take over first Gotham City, and then the world, is so silly and campy that it defies belief but the two actors involved make it so silly that you just accept it and go along for the ride! Mr Freeze's dialogue consists of one-liners only it seems, such gems like "The iceman cometh!", "What killed the dinosaurs?...the ice age!" and the corniness that is everybody just. Chill" I kid you not ladies and gentlemen. Uma Thurman is just as corny as Poison Ivy with a cartoonish performance which goes with the tone of the film, but you would never have guessed that this woman was once nominated for an OSCAR! Oh dear.. what a fall from grace!

The special effects are just awful too. Icicles wobble like they are made of plastic, oh wait, they ARE made of plastic! The whole tone of the film was to make it so unrealistic and market it as one big toy advert/commercial, which ironically is what contributed to its lack of success as it was put into production after the toys of the film came out, which explains a lot to be honest.

Also on a side note, to any fans of Bane, and especially those who like his portrayal in The Dark Knight Rises by Tom Hardy, were horrified when Batman & Robin came out as Bane was made to look like a complete fool, and even though I wasn't annoyed by Bane in this film, I can see why some comic book fans were upset by his portrayal.

So why after all the bad points that I have just noted before you today, do I love this film so much? Because it is so entertaining to watch! As a film in general, it is a disaster, but my word what a beautiful disaster it is. Not many films in your lifetime will have so many memorable moments than this one. Heck, I still quote Mr Freeze's epic lines from time to time! It is so outlandish and cartoonish that after a while you cannot help but enjoy the ride this film takes you on. It is truly one of the funniest, and quite frankly silliest, films I have ever seen and is one of my favourites of all time. I love The Dark Knight and consider it my all time favourite Batman film, but this, along with Batman Forever, are without doubt in a league of their own {not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing!}

My rating - {as a film in general} 2/10

{as a memorable and funny film} 9/10

I love this film even with all of it's flaws, and yes there's plenty of them!

Thanks again everyone for reading this review it means a lot to me. If you would like to share this review on other blog sites feel free, you can also +1 this on Google+, follow me on Twitter @MARRAMD, leave a comment below and share your thoughts on this film!

Question of the day - What is your favourite Batman film? also, feel free to tell us why :}

My next review will be uploaded very soon guys thank you for all the support!

Thursday, 25 July 2013

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY MOVIE REVIEW

Monsters University is a animated children's comedy film brought to you from Pixar, who are arguably most famous for the Toy Story trilogy. This film is a prequel to the highly successful Monsters Inc.

For those who have seen the original film, like myself, it was a huge box office success and in my opinion one of Pixar's best animated presentations. The two main characters in that film were Mike Wazowski {voiced by Billy Crystal} and Sully {voiced by John Goodman} and I remember really enjoying the original a lot so going into this prequel I had my doubts it could live up to the previous film. The film's main plot {no major spoilers} follows Mike and Sully again, but as kids, and not instantly friends either. Mike first visits Monsters Inc., a scare company on the fictional area on Monstropolis, on a school trip as an impressionable 6 year old. after meeting some of the senior scare majors, he is instantly fascinated and strives for the next 11 years to become a student at Monsters University. Fast forward those years and Mike has made it to Monsters University as a freshman. He quickly meets his new roommate Randy Boggs, a chameleon type creature who is all brains, but has no scare factor whatsoever. Mike eagerly awaits his first day on the programme and believes with his superior knowledge he can become a scare major in no time. Upon his first day, he and his class, whilst answering scare related questions, are interrupted by a loud and terrifying roar from Sully {James P. Sullivan to be exact}. His father was a major at Monsters U so he is a legacy child, and with that his arrogance becomes clear that he doesn't need smarts to get by as he can be scary without really trying.

Also during the class, they are introduced to the very strict {and also strange looking} dean of the university, Abigail Hardscrabble. She informs the new students that she will only tolerate and accept the very best scares in her programme, and the weakest will be kicked out if they fail to pass the upcoming test in a week's time.

Mike fails as he is too busy concentrating on his knowledge of scaring instead of balancing that along with the physical side of things. Whilst Sully fails due to the opposite, he doesn't possess the knowledge of scariness to progress, Their futures at Monsters U appear over, until they discover a competition called The Scare Games, a series of challenges designed so the winners will become the top monsters in the campus and evidently will be top of Hardscrabble's class. There are a number of typical groups in this scare games, there's the :jocks:, the cheerleaders, the "emo" students ', and then there's Mike and Sully's group of nerdy misfits. Whilst they still don't get along, Mike and Sully, along with their oddball group, must win the scare games and win a place back in the university.

I will stop the review of the plot there as I don't want to spoil anymore of the film, never the less this film I s very entertaining! Fans of the original Monsters Inc. film will enjoy this entry to the series. Is it a children's film? Yes of course but it's not without its comedy element that will appeal to kids and adults alike. The plot goes exactly where you think it will go, however I was still interested in it and enjoyed watching it unfold. Mike and Sully aren't just the only characters you will enjoy. Their oddball group of the least scary looking monsters ever assembled each have their own moments that make you laugh, and even though Abigail Hardscrabble isn't exactly friendly, I enjoyed her part in the film and she was voiced by Helen Mirren.

Pixar's animations, for me, have always been stunning to look at and this film is no exception. The attention to detail is fantastic. There are a couple of references back to the original film, they felt a little forced in at times but it was nice to see these elements mentioned.

I found myself enjoying the film and when it seems to have a ending, it then carries on for a good half hour longer and I felt that made the film more entertaining as the ending I thought was going to happen would have been too "cute" and predictable.

I would recommend Monsters University to people who not only have kids, but people who just enjoy good animated films.

My Rating - 7/10

Positives - Great animations, funny, fun for people of all ages

Negatives - Not as good as the original, references to the original felt forced at times, story was extremely predictable.

Thanks for reading this review everyone it means a lot to me. Hope to have more regular additions coming soon. If you like this review feel free to share this link on any other blog page{s}, +1 this on Google plus, share it, follow me on Twitter @MARRAMD, leave a comment below, let me know what you thought of the film!

Question of the day - What is your favourite Pixar/Disney film? Mine is Toy Story 1 :}

Thursday, 11 July 2013

Hey guys just a quick update and my apologies for my lack of World War Z review. I have yet to go and see it yet as I haven't had time to go at the moment but will be seeing it within the next 7 days so keep visiting the site, follow me on Twitter @MARRAMD and I will let you know when I have the review uploaded :} Thanks for your patience and have a great day!

Monday, 1 July 2013

This is the end is a comedy starring Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill, James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Jay Buruchel and a whole load of cameo appearances from various other celebrities {whom i will not spoil for you} and they are essentially playing themselves. A more exaggerated version of themselves, but themselves none the less. The film starts out with Seth Rogan and Jay Buruchel heading to a party at James Franco's house where they act how they do in most of their films, Seth gets high, Jonah's drunk, James Franco is over the top and crazy, then all of a sudden the world goes to hell, literally. Giant holes in the ground start appearing and swallow up people, buildings are on fire, all signs point to an "end of days" fate for our actor heroes. People are also being engulfed by a bright blue light that takes them to heaven, so they barricade themselves in Franco's house and together they must survive the apocalypse. Now I'm just going to say right now that this in my opinion is one of the funniest films I've seen in a couple of years, this film is hilarious!

The actors play actors and how they are perceived in their films and I found it very, very funny. There is also a lot of times where they take jabs at each others' less successful films and there's a lot of film reference humour in this film that I particularly enjoyed. The chemistry between the cast and indeed with the various cameo actors/actresses is genuine too and they act like a huge group of friends for the most part.

I will warn anyone though who maybe is not a huge fan of Seth Rogan style comedy, the more drug related jokes and sexual innuendoes may not get what they want with this film as its more of the same here. I however, don't mind that kind of humour so it didn't bother me, except a few times where they seem to stretch a joke out too long but that only happens maybe twice in the entire film.

The film was never dull in my opinion and whilst the CGI was average at best when the "monsters" are shown attacking people, it did its job well and doesn't take you out of the film. There is so much to laugh at in this film that I'm finding it very hard to keep this spoiler free! It's not always my style on these reviews to tell you to go and see a film, because the choice is evidently yours to make, however I would highly, highly recommend this comedy, especially if you want to see a ton of film references, great and funny cameos, a decent story and just a good comedy then I would say go and see this as soon as you can!

I will say though, there is a MAJOR cameo at the very end of the film that I loved! {and any 90s child will enjoy as well!}

My rating - 9/10

Positives - {where to start?!} The main cast, the cameos, very funny, good to see actors playing themselves, decent CGI, just a very fun film!

Negatives - Too many male sexual references at times, CGI could have been better, if you're not a fan of gross humour you may not enjoy it

Thanks again for reading this review everyone I am sorry I can't go into much more detail but I would be giving away the cameos and I think you will enjoy them better if you weren't aware who was in it. Unless of course you guys want me to do a spoiler review of the film if so leave a comment below!

If you like this review I have many more in the side bar if you want to see more of my material. Also, if you want to you can share this review and blog to your friends, or any other blog sites that would be appreciated! Also, +1 this on Google+, follow me on Twitter @MAARRAMD, leave a comment below let me know what you thought of This is the end, did you enjoy it? Which particular cameo was your favourite?

Thanks again everyone I appreciate every view and every bit of feedback! My next review will be of one of the favourite games, Resident Evil 5, but that is not before I review World War Z starring Brad Pitt which will be uploaded on Wednesday.